The Fires
by luvin'-music
Summary: '"What's happened?" he asked. Around them, fire and bombs exploded, choking the fresh air with toxic smoke. She looked up at him with half-lidded, dying eyes. "I love you," she whispered. "Remember, they cannot take it."' Takes place after Pandemonium.


**I love Alex! He is my favorite. XD**

**That being said, here is my first Delirium oneshot!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Delirium. Lauren Oliver does.**

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"What's happened?" he asked, looking at her with cold panic in his eyes. Around them, fire and bombs exploded, choking the fresh air with toxic smoke. He looked into her eyes, trying to ignore the intoxicating heat surrounding them and burning their flesh. Trying to focus on her, on keeping her alive.

She looked up at him with half-lidded, dying eyes. The light that shone in them just before was gone now, replaced with this empty calm. She continued to look at him, sweet innocence within their depths, oxygen barely pouring into her lungs. It was obvious. She was dying. And there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Raising her hand, she touched his face, lightly, the black tar from the flames coating her skin and rubbing off on his face, leaving a dark streak in its wake. He didn't mind, though. He grabbed her hand and held it close, not wanting to let it go. Not wanting her to let go. To die. He continued looking at her, pleading with her to stay with him, to just lie still with him and stay where she was. Where she should be.

It wasn't going to happen, though. He knew it as well as she did.

She gasped up at him, trying to raise herself into a sitting position. When it became apparent she couldn't, he bent low over her, his ear touching her lips, waiting for her to speak. Her voice came out at a tight rasp, her breath uneven below his ear. "I love you," she whispered, her words kissing something deep within him, lighting a fire that was slowly beginning to grow inside him. "Remember, they cannot take it."

He pulled back and looked down at her, searching her eyes, her expression on her face. She just smiled a little, bringing her thumb down to stroke his bottom lip. He kissed it, then bent down to kiss her, his lips soft as he pressed them onto her own. She lightly kissed him back, wincing with the effort, and then relaxed beneath him. The movement proved too much. She took one last, fleeting breath, and then released it, closing her eyes as she did so. Her hand was limp within his own now, just hanging on the side of his face, kept there only by his large hand over hers. He choked, fighting back the tears that threatened to escape. She was dead.

He tilted his head back and wailed, uncaring who heard him. It didn't matter if they tried to haul him away, to push him to the brink of death and send him over the edge again. With her gone, unable to be returned... He just didn't care anymore.

He bent low over her, resting his forehead against hers, breathing erratically as he wished for her to come back. Prayed for her to come back. Just come back, come back, come back.

From above him, he heard a helicopter beating it's propellers, sending the flames in the forest everywhere. Inside the helicopter would be people ready to kill, to finish the job that has already begun, to murder the remainder of the victims within this vast forest. He knew he shouldn't be there when they landed. He knew he should run before they found him, to take her body some place safe to bury, to mourn her loss as a proper boyfriend should. He should be _moving_.

But he just couldn't.

Behind him, he heard a rustling over the crackle of the fire. Someone's footsteps, come to check on him. He didn't move, didn't dare as he bent over the love of his life, now dead along with him. For he would die with her, he knew. He would rather die with her than live on without her. It was his final wish, and he would be happy for it to be granted.

"Alex?" a female voice said behind him. He lifted his head slowly, carefully meeting the eyes of the intruder. _Raven._ When she saw him, she took a step back, her hand over her mouth, looking from him to the body before him. "What...?" Then her eyes cleared as she realized just who it was."_Lena_?" she breathed, unbelieving to what her eyes displayed before her.

"Yes," was all he could say, brushing Lena's bangs from her face before kissing her head, the surface of her skin hot with the burning flames surrounding them. "She's dead," he said quietly, no feeling held within his words. He was burying them deep within himself now, to the place where he kept his deepest emotions hidden, placing them away and wrapping them up so he wouldn't have to look at them anymore. All he saw was Lena, and his love for her. That was it. "We should bury her."

"There's no time," Raven argued, cautiously walking towards them, kneeling before Lena's body. "What happened?" she breathed, taking the girl's pale hand between her own, stroking the dead girl's flushed skin.

Alex sat beneath the flames, the helicopter coming closer. They should move soon, he knew. If Raven was alive, then that meant the others were alive, too. Somewhere. But he stayed where he was as he looked at his love's face, now peaceful and totally unaware to her surroundings, only aware of the new world in which she had entered. "I don't know," was all he could say.

But he had an idea.

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**In case you are wondering where that came from... So am I. What did you think? Like? Hate? Eh? Please review!**


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